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After watching this movie for god knows how many times, I find myself reflecting on the years of education that I have also the excitement of the end of the year. Inlight of it being the end of the school year, I feel this is an appropriate time for this post. 

This movie has reminded me of the years of education that I have but also has reminded me of the fond memories of the last day of school.  As I have watched this movie for many years on the last day of school, this year was different.  I thought about the excitement of being done, the sense of accomplishment, a sigh of relief, the start of summer break but also thought more about the amount of years of education I have as a student and as a teacher.  

I was a student for 21 years:  2 years of pre-k, 2 years of kindergarten, 8 years of elementary and middle school, 4 years of high school,  4 years of college, and 1 year of graduate school. 

I was a teacher for 7 years:  1 year of teaching skiing at Mount Snow,     2 years of teaching and coaching at Northwood School, 1 year of student teaching at NYU,  and 3 years of teaching and coaching at Belchertown High School.

That is 28 years of my life dedicated to formal and informal education! WOW!

This movie also made me thinK ABOUT the importance of education and the meaning of education.  I believe that education is about: learning the student, teaching the student, and the relationship between learning and teaching.  This might sound trivial but I see it like this.  It is my personal and professional goal to gain an understanding of each student (the learning) in order to develop effective teaching strategies that meet their individual needs (the teaching).  I believe it is important to learn about the student to be able to effectively teach that student.  In addition, an assessment of their skills or knowledge will allow me to better understand their learning needs. I still hold this teaching philosophy and have grown and strengthened in many ways.  

I am still a teacher AND a student! I teach others about my disease and learn more about this disease everyday!   I believe it is important to learn about the student (in this case the disease), to be able to effectively teach that student (you the reader)  by sharing my story with you. 

Although I may not be teaching or learning in a classroom, for me the understanding of the disease is the learning as a student and sharing my story is the teaching as a teacher!